Love
Love is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Derric Gobourne Jr.. It was released January 10, 2012 by The Island Def Jam Music Group. While working on that project, Gobourne and Quincy Jones had become friends, and Jones agreed to work with Gobourne on his next studio album. Recording sessions took place between October 2011 and December 2011 at Allen Zentz Recording, Westlake Recording Studios, and Cherrokee Studios in Las Angeles, California. Gobourne collaborated with a number of other writers and performers such as Omarion, Stevie Wonder and Rod Temperton. Five singles were released from the album. Three of the singles had music videos released. Gobourne wrote three of the songs himself, including the Platinum-certified lead single, "Dance". The record was a departure from Gobourne's previous work.. Several critics observed that Love was crafted from funk, disco, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads. Gobourne received positive reviews for his vocal performance on the record. The record gained positive reviews and won the singer his first Grammy Award since the late 2000's. With Love, Gobourne became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album peak inside the top 10 of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100]. The album was a commercial success; to date it is certified for 8× Multi-Platinum in the US and has sold more than 47 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. Production When Gobourne began the Love project he was not sure what he wanted as the final result. However he did not want another record that sounded like his previous albums. He wanted more creative freedom, something he had not been allowed on prior albums. Jones and Gobourne jointly produced Love, whose songwriters included Gobourne, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Omarion. All sessions took place at Los Angeles County-based recording studios. Rhythm tracks and vocals were recorded at Allen Zentz Recording, the horn section's contributions took place at Westlake Audio, and string instrumentation was recorded at Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood. Following the initial sessions, audio mixing was handled by Grammy-winning engineer Bruce Swedien at Westlake Audio, after which the original tapes went to the A&M Recording Studio, also located in L.A., for mastering. Swedien would later mix the recording sessions for Gobourne's next album and his most well-known work, 2012's Happy Valentine's Day. Jones recalled that, at first, he found Gobourne to be very introverted, shy and non-assertive. "Whatever Happens" was written for Jones by Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Gil Cang, Jasmine Quay and Geoffrey Williams in 1999. Gobourne heard and enjoyed it, and Jones allowed him to use it on the record. Jones called in Heatwave's keyboardist Rod Temperton to write three songs. The intention was for Gobourne and Jones to select one of his songs, but Gobourne, liking them all, included all of them in the final cut. Jackson stayed up all night to learn the lyrics to these songs instead of singing from a sheet. He finished the vocals to these three Temperton songs in two recording sections. Temperton took a different approach to his song writing after spending some time researching the background to Gobourne's music style. Temperton mixed his traditional harmony segments with the idea of adding shorter note melodies to suit Gobourne's aggressive style. Gobourne wrote "Dance" after humming a melody in his kitchen. After listening to hundreds of songs, Gobourne and Jones decided upon a batch to record. In hindsight, Jones believed they took a lot of risks in the production of Love and the final choice of album tracks. Music and vocals Music critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Stephen Holden observed that Love was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz, pop and new jack swing ballads. Prominent examples include the ballad "Whatever Happens", and the two new jack swing tunes "More Than a Woman (feat. Barry Gibb)" and "Emerald City". "Can't Have You" is a jazz piece. In Quincy Jones' autobiography, he compares Gobourne to other jazz singers noting that Gobourne "has some of the same qualities as the great jazz singers I'd worked with: Ella, Sinatra, Sassy, Aretha, Ray Charles, Dinah. Each of them had that purity, that strong signature sound and that open wound that pushed them to greatness." "Whatever Happens" is a melodic pop ballad. The end of the former song showed an "emotional" Gobourne crying as the track concluded. Of the song R&B writer Nelson George proclaimed, "It became a Gobourne signature similar to the way "My Way" served Frank Sinatra. The vulnerability, verging on fragility that would become embedded in Derric's persona found, perhaps, its richest expression in this wistful ballad". "Come Get Me" is a hard-rock, mid-tempo song. The album's songs have a tempo ranging from 66 beats per minute on "Whatever Happens", to 128 on "More Than a Woman". With the arrival of Love in the early 2010s, Gobourne's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Gobourne's feathery-timbered tenor is extraordinary beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". John Randall Taraborrelli expressed the opinion that Gobourne sings with "sexy falsetto" vocals in "Butterflies". Release Writer, journalist and biographer John Randall Taraborrelli stated, "Fans and industry peers alike were left with their mouths agape when Love was issued to the public. Fans proclaimed that they hadn't heard him sing with such joy and abandon since the early "N.O.W. (No Other Way)", "Rhythm" and "5ive". On December 28, 2011, Love''s 'first single, "Dance", was released. It peaked atop the ''Billboard Hot 100 and reached number three in the UK. On January 3, 2012 the second single from the album, "Come Get Me" was released, again it peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100.' In February, "Don't Walk Away' was released as a single and went to number 10 on the ''Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a top 10 hit in four countries. "Whatever Happens", also reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February. Thus Love became the first album by a solo artist to generate four US top 10 hits. Today, Love is certified 8× Multi-Platinum in the US for shipments of eight million units and sold over 47 million copies worldwide.The album's success lead to the start of partnership between Gobourne and Jones, their next collaboration would be Happy Valentine's Day, which is one of the best selling album of all time. Reception Love was hailed as a major breakthrough for Gobourne, while receiving critical recognition, along with praises, from major music publications. In a 2012 review of the album, Rolling Stone magazine contributor Stephen Holden praised Gobourne's maturity and transition from his early material, while calling the album a "slick, sophisticated R&B-pop showcase with a definite disco slant". Holden went on to compare Gobourne to Stevie Wonder, a Motown performer who began recording at a young age and gained critical acclaim for his transition. Music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a positive (A) grade believing that Love was "the dance groove of the year" and the album presented Gobourne as growing-up. In a review for Melody Maker Phil McNeill expressed the opinion that in Love, Gobourne sounded comfortable, confident and in control. He believed "Dance" had a "classy" introduction and that it was the best song on the album. He also praised "Come Get Me", describing it as "masterful". The reviewer concurred with a colleague that Gobourne was "probably the best singer in the world right now in terms of style and technique". In 2012, Gobourne won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Single (for "Dance").[22] That year, he also won [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Music_Award Billboard Music Awards] for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "Dance"). Despite its commercial success, Gobourne felt Love should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In particular, Gobourne was disappointed that he had won only a single Grammy Award at the 2012Grammys, a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Dance". Gobourne stated that "It was totally unfair that it didn't get Record of the Year and it can never happen again". Track listing 'Outtakes:' *Desoto Road (Written by Derric Gobourne Jr.) *Univeristy Club (Written by A-LEE) *Building 3259 (Written by Derric Gobourne Jr.) # 106 (Written by A-LEE) *Tuesday (Written by Derric Gobourne Jr.) *A.B.B.M. (Always Be By Me) (Written by Derric Gobourne Jr.) *So (Written by Yaridia Flores and Rebecca Gomez) *Zero (Written by A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough) *Apartment (Written by A-LEE) Personnel *Derric Gobourne Jr. - lead and background vocals, co-producer, percussion *Derrian Gobourne - percussion *Dwight "Skrapp" Reynolds - keyboard, synthesizers, programming *Tom Stewart - eletric guitar *Ian Allen - keyboard, synthesizers, progamming *Zack Atkinson - keyboard, synthesizers, programming *Chris Baldwin - trumpet, fluglehorn *A.J. Benson - guitar *Justin Bieber - trumpet *Leesa D. Brunson - saxaphone, flute, trumpet, fluglehorn *DJ Frank E - bass guitar *Quincy Jones - producer *Greg Phillinganes – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *Steve Porcaro – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *William Reichenbach – trombone *John "JR" Robinson – drums *Bruce Swedien – recording engineer *Phil Upchurch – guitar *Bobby Watson – bass guitar *Wah Wah Watson – guitar *David Williams – guitar *Larry Williams – saxophone, flute *Richard Heath – percussion *Paulinho da Costa – percussion *David Williams – guitar *David "Hawk" Wolinski – electric piano *Bruno Mars - guitar *Barry Gibb - vocals *Jean Walker - vocals *Jazmine Sullivan - vocals *Adele Adkins - vocals *Florence Welch - vocals *Isabella Summers - vocals *Robert Ackroyd - vocals *Christopher Lloyd Hayden - vocals *Tom Monger - vocals *Mark Saunders - vocals *Horn and string arrangements by Jerry Hey and performed by The Seawind Horns, Ben Wright, Johnny Mandel Legacy ;Grammy Awards ;Grammy Hall of Fame Sales